18. John

As John walked into the room a feeling of dread fell upon him Troth follows, carrying Thomas like a sack of potatoes.

The first thing off was how dimly lit the room was, despite the clutter of medical instruments. It seemed that the only "beds" there were gurneys that one would more expect to see a corpse on than a sick patient. Just to add to the aesthetic, there were gigantic test tubes with some creature-shaped entities floating in their green ectoplasm. John also noticed there were a couple racks of knives on the wall next to jars of squirming slugs that John assumes are leeches. This "hospital" did not look like a hospital at all.

'This place looks more like a torture chamber than a hospital!'

The girl danced over to a gurney with copious leather straps on it. And taps it, oddly excitedly.

"Please set him down here!"

Then, like an excitable child she took off running at a sprint to the back exit of the room.

"Moooooommmmmaaaaa!"

Shivers ran down John's spine.

Troth moved towards the gurney, until John stopped him with a hand to his chest.

"I am getting a bad taste in my mouth."

Troth grunted again,

"Do you know CPR?"

"Well no but..."

"Then let me set your heavy friend down."

Troth tossed Thomas, much like a wrestler, flat on his back onto the gurney.

John winced as Thomas arched his back responding to the pain. He groaned but still didn't wake up.

Searching for a bench, Troth mulls about the room.

Concerned, John moved next to Thomas's bedside and put some fingers to check his pulse.

Sure enough his pulse was still there, albeit erratic, as far as John could tell, but once again he is no doctor.

And so they waited for the nurse.

They didn't have to wait long, within a few minutes the girl came speeding around the corner again, narrowly missing a disturbing looking tray of hypodermic needles.

"Here momma here!"

Walking briskly through the doorway, the nurse followed the girl and approached the bed.

"Mistle!"

The girl flinched,

"Yes mama?"

The nurse pointed to the door she just came from.

"We need more materials, go gather them."

She jumped up like an excitable puppy.

"Yes ma'am!"

And she took of running once more.

The nurse gave an exasperated sigh.

"My apologies for my assistant, I usually have her doing menial tasks for me."

John shrugs

"Well if it isn't our new caretaker, already drinking on the job I see."

The nurse walked over and pressed two fingers to his neck.

"What an odd heart-rate, I've never seen this before in a patient, what on earth did he dri-"

Thomas sat rigidly up with a gasp.

Everyone in the room jumped back except for Troth, who seemed oddly comfortable with a lurching person about 2 meters away.

Panting to regain control of his breath Thomas took in his surroundings...and immediately rolled out of the gurney and flat onto the ground when he realized where he was.

"What the hell?! Why am I here?"

The nurse looked back at John who cleared his throat.

"It looked like you were poisoned, I've never seen a man pass out from a simple drink of cider."

Thomas shook his head,

"Whoever did, I have to thank them."

John was baffled,

"What?"

"Before, my memories were a bit fuzzy, I could remember I had something to do with something called an isekai, and powers going awry and whatnot, but now I remember everything..."

Tears started to run down his face,

"Even from my past life..."

He shook the tears away with a shake of the head.

"Anyways, I would really rather not be here in this room."

"Now just you hold up!"

The nurse had her arms crossed and was looking disapproving.

Thomas rubbed his head, which must be sore after Troth tossed him, and turned around.

"Do you want to get paid for some service you did while I was asleep?"

"Yes, but since I didn't need to use any supplies these will just be jobs."

John winced,

That is how he got roped into this business in the first place, paying off a bar tab in the next city over.

Thomas grumbled something about "side quests" before regaining composure.

"What do you need nurse?"

The nurse un-crosses her arms, seemingly pleased that she was able to pawn this task off on someone.

"First, I need you to gather some mushrooms of corruption, I have no idea why but my cultures in the back have recently all died, meaning one of two things."

"One, the corruption that plagues this land no longer exists, which would take a drastic event to occur, or two, you guys are somehow magical or toxic to shrooms."

Both of those theories sound cracked out to John.

Thomas closed his eyes for a moment before reopening them, more focused than John has ever seen them look.

"Got it, and what else?"

The nurse laughed lightly,

"I'd like to know what cider can knock out a man, I know Astrea has some crazy liquers, but I've never heard of her selling something THAT potent."

John had a double-take,

"Excuse me, 'she?'"

John looked at Thomas,

"I think that man poisoned you."

Thomas shook his head,

"I'm fine, but I am surprised, somebody out there wanted me to remember everything."